Lesley Holdship - Home Economist, Food Stylist & Recipe Writer

swindon web TV

I have had a great day today! I did a little filming with Swindon Web TV at a lovely garden centre near Swindon called John Toomer.I did a little interview with a charming chap called Alastair Greener for the online TV channel last month at Stanton House Hotel in their Yakiniku restaurant. We had an excellent experience in this unusual setting grilling our own meats and eating them with pickles and all things Japanese! They asked me if we could get together and do a cookery slot each month so today was the start of a great friendship with Swindon web TV, Alastair and me.When I arrived at the garden centre, I was greeted with a beautiful backdrop of vegetable seedlings, herbs and flowers. Setting up amongst the rosemary and lavender the weather cleared and we got on with the shoot.Arkells are a local brewery to me. They brew all sorts of beers and today I decided to use one of them, Wiltshire Gold, for my recipe. A beautiful light summery ale with a malty, sweet yet hoppy flavour. Really nice! So a quick spring dish seemed just the ticket.

Heat the goose fat in a large deep frying pan. Cook the onions for 5-8 minutes until just starting to colour. Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes more.Add the chicken and cook on a high heat to colour. Scatter in the carrots, celery and thyme then pour in the beer. stir through the black treacle, season then simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.Add the spring onions and cabbage, cover then simmer for a further 5 minutes. Sprinkle in the parsley, stir it through then serve the chicken with a lovely dollop of mash potato and perhaps a cold glass of cider.

This is so easy. One pot cooking at it's simplest and lovely for now with the cold, damp weather threatening us daily!Change the recipe to suit you, adding seasonal vegetables and perhaps swapping the beer for cider.